Cookware has existed for centuries in many different forms. Over time, cookware has become more technologically sophisticated due to advances in material sciences. Some cookware are even advertised to have special surfaces, or coatings on surfaces, which prevent foodstuff from sticking to the surface. While some cooking devices, such as crock pots, may include a non-stick surface in its interior cooking chamber, there are numerous existing crock pots which do not. In these situations, while crock pots provide even or substantially uniform heat conduction throughout its interior chamber and require minimal electrical energy to operate, some food may burn or otherwise stick to the interior chamber walls making it difficult to scrape off during cleaning Moreover, crock pots having a conventional ceramic or stoneware interior cooking chamber are still being sold in the market today which do not contain a non-stick surface.
One of the most common types of containers used in the cooking arts in an cooking vessel (such as an oven) is the aluminum pan or like structure made from a sheet of aluminum foil. Such containers may be preformed into a specific shape, thus avoiding the labor required for assembly of a shaped article. Such containers, when traditionally used and sold, can be stacked easily since the shape of each container registers with shapes of adjacent containers. Thus, such containers are easy to manufacture, can be manufactured without much expense, and can easily be stored or discarded. The use of aluminum foil containers also have the advantage of being resistant to grease, oil, and water while still permitting appropriate browning of the foodstuff to be cooked. While aluminum foil containers are generally strong and tear-resistant, such containers typically cannot be used as a cooking container in microwave ovens, but are good cooking instruments when used in conventional ovens, barbeques and convection ovens.
What is needed is a single compartment liner for slow cooking units such as a crock pot that is disposable and which does not interfere with the operation of the crock pot as it operates to cook food. Despite the existence of crock pot liners having other structures, a single compartment liner for cookware is needed to provide a clean cooking environment, and which is simple to manufacture, thereby allowing a cook to prepare meals in the cookware without having the mess associated with such cooking. Such a liner requires simplicity for manufacturing high volumes of liners, and preferably should be readily disposable after use.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2002/0038802 A1 discloses a dual compartment aluminum crock pot liner which is suitable for use for simultaneously preparing two or more distinct food items in a crock pot. While the multi-compartment crock pot liner has the advantage of cooking multiple food items at the same time, it also has the disadvantage of simultaneously mixing the flavors of the multiple food items because the steam generated from each food being cooked will be circulated within the crock pot interior chamber, thereby intermixing the steam with the various foods being cooked.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,601 B1 discloses a liner suitable for use with a Dutch oven. A Dutch oven is a heavy, cast iron cooking apparatus which is subject to harsh cooking environments. Such cast iron cooking instruments are placed directly in contact with a heat source (such as a fire or charcoal briquettes) and are known to provide unequal or uneven heat conduction when cooking, thereby leading to inconsistent cooking results. As such, the disclosed liner will be likewise subject to inconsistent heat conduction and burning of food.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,446 B1 discloses a cooker system having a liner for crock pots. The liner is disclosed as having a ribbed exterior wall with a question-mark shaped rim designed to hook on to the cooking system rim disclosed therein to provide a seal between the liner and the cooking system lid. This disclosure has the significant disadvantage of sealing the foodstuff being cooked within the liner thereby preventing steam from escaping from the cooking unit and thereby resulting in the cooking system likely exploding due to a build-up of steam pressure within the liner cooking compartment.